In January 2014, Newman’s essay “Wikipedia, What Does Judith Newman Have to Do to Get a Page?” appeared in The New York Times. In the essay, Newman questioned Wikipedia’s editorial policies, including its criteria for selecting and deleting articles, and requested that Wikipedia editors help with creating an article about her.[28] That same day, a Wikipedia article was written on Newman, who chronicled her “Wiki-Validation” in a second New York Times column a week later: “Wikipedia may be a haven for cranks and pedants, but it is also amazing”, Newman wrote. “Why some guy named SSSilvers [sic], who describes his interests as ‘light opera, musical theater and global warming,’ would take hours out of his day to noodle with a stranger’s page is mysterious, and yet touching.”[29][30]

Controversy

Judith’s most recent book, To Siri With love was met with great opposition by adult autistic people all over the world. Autistic advocates claim Judith’s book is an exploitation of her autistic son’s privacy and rights. Most outrage focused on one quote, when Judith said the following about her son “I am still deeply worried about the idea that he could get someone pregnant and yet could never be a real father – which is why I will insist on having medical power of attorney, so that I will be able to make the decision about a vasectomy for him after he turns 18.”[31] Many advocates claim that Judith’s anti-autistic views are bordering on Nazi-era eugenics. Outrage erupted on Twitter in November 2017. calling for a boycott of Judith’s book using the hashtag #BoycottoSiri.[32]

Newman’s memoir, You Make Me Feel Like An Unnatural Woman: Diary of a New (Older) Mother, was published in 2004.[5] It details the challenges of getting pregnant at the age of 40, after “seven years of science,” $70,000, and nine months of nausea. A Publishers Weekly review noted: “While humorless and/or politically correct readers may bristle at Newman’s antics, everyone else will be rolling in the aisles, reading out funny parts to perfect strangers.”[4]

In August 2017, HarperCollins released Newman’s To Siri with Love, a collection of stories about life with her autistic son, Gus. The book was inspired by her 2014 New York Times essay of the same name.[41][42] in an August 20 review in the New York Times, Ron Suskind describes her book as “uncommonly riotous and moving.”[43]

In 2017 To Siri With love was met with great opposition by adult autistic people all over the world. Autistic advocates claim Judith’s book is an exploitation of her autistic son’s privacy and rights.[44] Most outrage focused on one quote, when Judith said the following about her son “I am still deeply worried about the idea that he could get someone pregnant and yet could never be a real father – which is why I will insist on having medical power of attorney, so that I will be able to make the decision about a vasectomy for him after he turns 18.” Many advocates claim that Judith’s anti-autistic views are bordering on Nazi-era eugenics. Outrage erupted on Twitter in November 2017.[45] calling for a boycott of Judith’s book using the hashtag #BoycottoSiri[46]